Demographic Characteristics and Workers’ Performance in Public Service in Nigeria

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume III, Issue II, February 2019 | ISSN 2454–6186

Demographic Characteristics and Workers’ Performance in Public Service in Nigeria

Anne E. Omori¹, Peter U. Bassey²

¹Ph.D., Institute of Education, University of Calabar, Calabar, Cross River State, Nigeria
²Ph.D., Department of Educational Foundations, University of Calabar, Calabar, Cross River State, Nigeria

Abstract: – There has been persistent poor performance among workers in Nigerian public organisations and Cross River State in particular over the years. The trend is exacerbated by changes in demographic variables. Previous studies have focused more attention on staff performance appraisal, commitment and job involvement with less attention paid to the influence of demographic characteristics (such as age, gender, marital status, work experience and educational level) on workers’ performance. This study therefore, examined the extent to which demographic characteristics predisposed workers’ performance in some selected public service in Cross River State, Nigeria. The survey design of ex-post facto was employed and the study was guided by five research questions and hypotheses. A total of 1,068 respondents were randomly selected to represent the entire population of public servants in Cross River State. Participants were 584 males and 484 females. Two validated instruments namely: Demographic Characteristis and Workers’ Performance scales was validated was used in collecting data for the study. The reliability co-efficient of 0.86 was obtained using test-retest method and Pearson Product Moment Correlation analysis. Data was analyzed using percentage count, weight mean and Analysis of Variance statistics. The results showed that demographic characteristics significantly influence performance of workers in public service. By implications, the results of the study attest to the fact that even though workers’ performance may be influenced by other factors as portrayed by many scholars, performances of workers are equally affected by their demographic characteristics. Hence, adequate consideration should be given to employee personal characteristics in motivating them to a higher performance level. This study could be useful to government and human resource administrators as a measure of employee performance.

Keywords: Demographic Characteristics, Workers’ Performance and Public Service.

Read More